Sunday, April 2

Corporate Social Responsibility

The Corporate Advisory Boardto the Government that is advising on any recommended changes to the law as it affects companies has now published submissions from various community and business organisations as well as private individuals.

Many of the submissions tend to just focus on their own area of interest or conclude the existing law adequately covers the situation.

I think Australian companies should be actively encouraged to adopt socially environmental responsible business practices. In fact this should always have been the case it is an indictment of our civilised state to think otherwise. The alternative is to give no consideration to sustainability and disregard the rights of future generations.My preference is for descriptive provisions to operate by way of guiding principles enacted in law and within corporate governance structures.Otherwise I think we are in danger of thinking of ethics and environmental sustainability as something only very highly trained people are capable of thinking about.CSR needs to stay in the mainstream of shareholder and stakeholder concerns, acknowledged at every level in the community.

About Me

I have worked in the roles as Company Secretary or Divisional financial executive with larger Australian based multinational companies before changing careers in favour of sales and marketing for the latter 12 years of business life.
My particular interests include corporate social responsibility, ethics and research into more sustainable business practices.
I am a fellow of CPA Australia and an Associate member of the Governance Institute of Australia which was previously called the Chartered Secretaries Australia. I am chairman of the Malawi Support group who are a small group of catholic parishioners who raise funds to support a sister parish in Malawi.